Entwined: (A Dark Romance Kidnap Thriller) (The Dark Necessities Trilogy Book 3)

by Felicity Brandon

  “Molly.”

  Connor’s voice was like a strangled noise, the thought reminding her briefly about the ordeal he’d subjected himself to last night.

  She gazed down at him, lowering her breasts over his chest. All the while, her hips continued to move, fucking him over and over, the connection between them burgeoning as she kissed the muscles of his shoulder.

  “Kitten, stop!”

  His voice was hoarse, but she could tell he was calling out with as much volume as he could muster. Connor’s effort made her pause, and she stopped moving for the first time since she’d mounted him.

  “It’s okay, Master,” she purred. “I won’t go too far. I won’t let you come inside me.”

  Connor screwed his face into a ball. “That’s not the point,” he snarled. “And you know it.”

  He seemed genuinely upset with her, and Molly watched as he pulled hard against the binds at the bedpost. At that moment, a wave of twisted triumph washed over her. Finally, he knew. Finally, Connor could understand what it was like to be the one who was tied, the one without the power, the one who was subjugated, and even though she knew she shouldn’t enjoy that thought, she simply couldn’t help it. Power was an aphrodisiac. And while, as a lover of bondage, and a writer of erotic romance, she was already well aware of that fact, the reality made her heady. Now, she could see the attraction from Connor’s point of view; now the allure became clear. Watching such a strong, muscular man bound and comparatively helpless was absolutely thrilling.

  “Get off me, Molly.” The instruction was low, yet clear.

  Molly stared down at him, trying to decipher his expression. Was he really pissed at her, or was he just playing? “Is that how this works?” she muttered resentfully. “You get to do whatever you like, whenever the fuck you want, so long as you use a condom?”

  Connor blinked up at her coldly. “I’m tired,” he told her. “We’re done. Get off me, and untie me.”

  He rattled off the orders like old times, but this time was different. This time, Connor was the one bound and unimpressed, and now she had control.

  “You don’t like it, then?” she asked him in a sulky tone. “You don’t like me riding you?”

  Connor rolled his eyes at her. “I don’t like the way you’re disrespecting me. This pouty, sullen version of my kitten is not attractive.”

  Fury rose in Molly at his words. How fucking dare, he! How fucking dare he accuse her of being disrespectful. After everything Connor had done to her, he had the temerity to call her disrespectful.

  “Is that right?” she snapped. “I’m not attractive. So, that’s why your cock is rock solid in my cunt right now?”

  Connor’s brow rose at her language, and his lips curled into a smirk. “Now, now, kitten.” Even with his wrists bound, that tone was ominous. “You need to watch that mouth of yours.”

  “It’s still hard,” she told him triumphantly. “And do you know why, Master? It’s hard because you want me. You fucking want me so badly that nothing but my wet pussy will do.”

  She clenched herself around his pulsing cock, squeezing him intimately until she saw him swallow in response. That was what she was looking for. Some acknowledgement that she was right. Some recognition that she had power over him regardless of the ropes at his wrists. That he wanted her. He wanted her as badly as she wanted him, and that was the real truth.

  “Okay, pet.” He conceded in a long sigh. “I want you. You know that. You’ve always known that, but that doesn’t mean we should be fucking without a condom.”

  Molly laughed. “So, now you’re a sadist with a conscience?”

  He closed his eyes, rolling his head toward his right arm. “That’s hardly fair,” he mumbled. “I’ve done everything I can to try and repent. To try and make this right.”

  “This isn’t about repenting, Master. You know I don’t believe in that shit.” She flexed her hips forward, goading him into action.

  Connor groaned in response. “I know,” he moaned, “and maybe I don’t, either, but…” He hesitated, his expression truly uncertain for the first time since the day she saw him carted off by the police. “I had to do something, kitten. I had to try.”

  What little power remained in his voice broke, and Connor inhaled deeply as he tried to compose himself. Molly’s passion faded in an instant. It had been fun to have the power over him for once—scintillating even—and even though she hated to admit it, Molly had enjoyed exploiting that fact, but seeing him weary and sad like this all of a sudden was not arousing. Not even vaguely.

  She climbed from his body, rubbing her temples as she tried to get a grip. What had she been thinking? If she could even contemplate relishing the limited control she’d had over him, then what did that make her? She was as bad as him. As fucked up as he was.

  “I’m sorry,” she sighed, crawling the short distance to release the ropes from the bedpost. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  She fiddled anxiously with the knots, ashamed that she’d even contemplated taking advantage of Connor that way. Whatever their past, he had done his best to put all that behind him, and now she’d thrown it back in his face in the most grotesque way. He had asked her to stop. More than once. And she had chosen to ignore him. Her belly lurched as she considered the truth. If she was a man, then that would make her the abuser.

  Maybe, it still did?

  “You wanted revenge,” he replied after a moment. “I get it. It’s normal.”

  Molly glanced down at him. Whatever the hell had happened, it was far from normal. “No,” she gasped. “I didn’t. Or, at least I didn’t think I did…”

  She pulled the final knot apart, releasing the rope from the bedstead and freeing his arms at last. That’s when the tears came, and once they started, they fell hard and fast.

  Connor forced himself upright, his gaze falling upon her. The bruising at his neck was darker than ever, and the fact she’d been such a bitch when he was already injured just made Molly feel even worse.

  “It’s okay,” he soothed her in a low, croaky tone. “None of this is your fault, kitten. None of it.”

  Molly shook her head. “Don’t make excuses for me,” she sobbed. “I don’t deserve it.”

  Connor inhaled, his gaze narrowing at her statement. “That’s bullshit,” he told her flatly. “And, by the way, you don’t get to make that call. I do, and I say you deserve a whole lot more than just that.”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Silence fell over the bed as an unhappy impasse was reached between them. Connor leaned back against the wooden bedstead, stretching his aching neck.

  “This is fucked up, kitten,” he said with a sigh, and breaking the heavy quiet of the room. “Totally fucking messed up, and wrong. I should never have taken you, and you should never have come back, but then, we know all that shit already, don’t we?”

  He flexed his wrists, still bound in the black ropes, though he didn’t ask her to remove them.

  Molly turned her head to meet his eyes. Her tears had finally halted, but she felt no better for them. “Yep, Master,” she agreed quietly. “We know all that, and we are where we are, and we feel what we feel. We’ve both made our choices, and now it’s time to move forward.”

  “Any more clichés for me, pet?” he countered with a small smirk, and she flashed him an irritated expression.

  “I’m trying to be serious,” she insisted. “I actually think we’re good together, Master. When we both try, and when one of us isn’t trying to do something to hurt the other one.”

  Connor’s expression hardened, and he gazed at her thoughtfully. “Yes, we are,” he agreed. “And for the record, I loved the feel of you without the condom, kitten. But, before we make a decision like that, we need to talk about it, okay?”

  Molly smiled, lowering her gaze as she shook her head. “Will I ever get used to this new Connor?” she wondered out loud. “The one who wants to talk about things and make joint decisions?”

  He
snorted. “You’d better had!” He laughed dryly. “Because you’re stuck with the fucker now.”

  “I love that fucker,” she corrected him, shifting her weight to start working on the ropes at his wrists.

  Connor smiled at her words as he watched her work. “Tell me that again, kitten,” he commanded, ensuring his voice remained soft as the order was given.

  She turned toward him, and for the first time in a while he saw a flash of happiness in those sultry blue eyes. “I’m trying to unbind you, Master,” she informed him lightly.

  “I know what you’re doing,” he replied. “But just because I’m the one bound doesn’t mean I don’t give the instructions, does it, kitten?”

  Molly’s fingers paused work at the ropes, and Connor noticed the way her nipples pebbled at just the hint of authority in his voice. “No, Master,” she agreed at length. “No, it doesn’t.”

  “So?” he prompted. “Tell me again. Come over here and tell me how you feel.”

  She smiled, running a finger lightly over the soft hair of his chest as she inched her way up the bed in his direction. “I love you, Master,” she drawled, ensuring she met his eye as her finger reached his collarbone. “For all of the fucked up things you do, and for all of the fucked up ones I have done in return, I love you. I’ve known it for a long time.”

  Connor swallowed at that, her words making him heady, despite the sharp pain in his throat as he gulped. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that?” he murmured, staring into her enthralling eyes.

  Molly shook her head again. “No, Master,” she answered. “But, I’m going to guess a long time?”

  “Too fucking long,” he retorted as he lifted his arms to his chest. “Now, will you please get these fucking ropes off me, because there’s something I want to tell you, too?”

  There was a flicker of excitement in Molly’s eyes, but she complied immediately, her digits returning to the black ropes at his skin.

  “You can tell me anyway?” she proffered as she worked. “Even with the ropes?”

  Connor smirked. “I know,” he agreed. “But the bondage doesn’t really go well with what I have in mind.”

  Molly inhaled at his words, but didn’t reply until she’d released the final bind, and pulled the ropes from his flesh.

  “Better?” she asked as she flung them to the carpet below, and twisted her gaze back to meet Connor’s eye.

  “Much better,” he decided. “Now, get your pretty little arse over here and show me who the submissive one in this relationship is.”

  She bit her lip at his words, and he wondered if it was an involuntary response to the sound of his command. Before Connor had a chance to reprimand her though, Molly was moving, crawling the short distance to lie beside him.

  He rolled to his right side, devouring the look of the gorgeous, naked woman next to him. Connor noticed for the first time that she didn’t have her collar on, and while he could understand the reasoning, he wondered if it was its absence that had empowered his kitten into such bold, and naughty behavior.

  “You need your collar,” he mused, tracing a gentle line over her shoulder.

  Molly panted at his touch, her right hand rising to her neck at the admission. “Yes, Master,” she conceded. “I forgot about it in the excitement of last night, and anyway, you were literally out for the count.”

  “Mmmm, I’ll let you off this time then,” he concluded. “But for the collar only. Not for intentionally disobeying me last night, and not for doing the same just now. When I give an order, you only have one job, kitten. What is it?”

  She flashed him an incredulous stare, as though she couldn’t believe he was still harping on about this stuff. Connor smiled at the response. In the ups and downs of the last few days, his little kitten had started to forget her place, and that was his responsibility. He fully intended to make that right.

  “Kitten?” he repeated in a sterner tone. “I’m waiting.”

  “To obey you,” she conceded with some reluctance.

  Connor shifted, using what little energy he had to roll her back against the covers and climb over her splayed body. “That’s right,” he agreed as his legs nudged her knees wider. “Your job is to obey. I promise to be fair from now on, but that doesn’t change the dynamic here. Only one of us can be in control, Molly, and it seems like you’ve forgotten that important fact.”

  Her lips parted at his edict, but she didn’t try and counter him. Instead, she drew her arms north over her head in an overt display of her submission.

  “Did you forget?” he goaded her as he shifted his weight from his elbows to link hands with his kitten. Entwining their fingers, he allowed the heat of his body to press against her soft, yielding flesh, and instinctively, his cock stirred back into life.

  Molly shook her head. “No, Master,” she whispered. “I just got lost in all this redemption crap.”

  Connor lowered his head, ignoring his complaining neck as he planted a line of hot kisses against her jaw. The gesture provoked a sexy groan from the writhing woman trapped underneath him. Perhaps she was right. It had seemed so important to do those things for Lydia, and for Molly. To sacrifice for them both in order to set things right, and despite the pain he felt, Connor didn’t regret any of it. If it had in any way gone toward absolving him of the sick fucking things he’d done, then it had been worth it, but in committing to those rituals, he’d inadvertently taken his eye from the real prize, and that was Molly.

  “I’m sorry I let that happen,” he murmured into her throat. “Those were things that had to be done, for us both, but now they are finished.”

  He lifted his head, connecting with her dilating pupils. “And that means I can go back to obsessing about the one thing that really makes me happy, kitten. Do you know what that is?”

  She stared up at him, her hips pushing her pussy up into his groin in a reflexive show of desire. “Me?” she croaked in a voice so tiny it made Connor smile.

  “Yes, you,” he assured her, pressing his own hips down to pinion her greedy little pussy into place. “Being with you, dominating you, fucking you and making you happy.”

  Molly gasped at his sentiment, her gaze conveying the passion that was building in her at the admission. “Master,” she panted. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Yes, you do,” he told her softly. “What do you say when you’re given a gift, kitten?”

  Connor’s mouth hovered over her face, grazing her lips as his question ended, and for a moment, all there was between them was need, lust and the burgeoning love that made their attraction so irresistible.

  “Thank you, Master,” she whispered eventually. “Thank you. I want that so much. More than anything. More than any of the other shit. The rest of it is all counterfeit compared to this.”

  He gazed down at her beautiful face, blinking into those blue eyes in utter disbelief. When had this happened, the voice in his head wondered? When had he become the luckiest son of a bitch, in the world?

  “I agree, kitten,” he said with a smile. “And I mean what I’ve said. I am going to spend the rest of my life making you smile, and beg, and tremble, and come, and sometimes, not come…”

  His words trailed away and he broke into a small laugh at the prospect. For maybe the first time in his whole life, Connor was genuinely excited at what his future might mean.

  Molly smiled up at him. “And all I have to do is obey?” she asked wryly.

  “For the most part,” he told her. “But I will be asking for your input from now on. For example, I’d like to take you away for the day and get out of this place, but I’m not sure where you’d enjoy. Any thoughts?”

  She stirred beneath him, evidently surprised at the change of tact. “Really?” she queried. “Anywhere?”

  “Well,” he answered. “Anywhere we can reach by car. I’m going to have trouble with passport control for a while, while I’m still a wanted man.”

  “Oh yeah,” she replied with a coy
smile. “I forgot you’re a man on the run.”

  “Right,” he agreed. “So, before I tan your backside for not obeying me last night, tell me, does anywhere spring to mind?”

  Molly’s eyes widened at the sound of the imminent threat, but she made no move to argue. “Actually, Master,” she purred in an almost seductive tone. “There is somewhere I’d like to go…”

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  The silence swirled around her, but this time, unlike all the others, she welcomed it. Molly’s gaze ran over his flawless body, drinking in the musculature which met her hungry eyes. After all these times of seeing him naked, she never failed to be impressed at his physical condition. Most men were more belly than muscle by their forties, yet Connor seemed to successfully evade that curse.

  It had been almost an hour since he’d taken the strap to her ass for her disobedience, and while her behind stung like hell, the resonance had left Molly feeling warm and comforted. She had knowingly overstepped the boundary, understanding full well that there would be consequences, and for his part, Connor had enacted those consequences. Somehow, it felt good to know that was the case. She felt safe and reassured by the knowledge.

  Connor’s hand shifted, pulling her tighter at the waist until her flesh was flush against his impressive hard lines.

  “What are you thinking about?” he purred almost absentmindedly as his lips perused the side of her neck.

  Molly squirmed at the exquisite sensation, rousing the interest of his already semi-erect cock as her moist pussy writhed over it. Even though he was still recovering from his ridiculous ordeal, Connor was as perpetually horny as she was. “You,” she whispered breathlessly. “I was thinking about what a prize specimen you are, Master.”

  The mouth at her throat broke into a croaky laugh, the sound making her smile as his face appeared back in her eye-line. “Oh yeah,” he cooed in an overtly sardonic tone. “I’m quite the catch me. A proper, full-time psycho.”